Homosexuals in the Kingdom

The monthly Magazine the Atlantic, www.Theatlantic.com ran a story by Nadya Labi in its May issue on homosexuality in Saudi Arabia, and how gay men and women in Saudi Arabia live their lives in a seemingly strict society and yet maintain a thriving homosexual culture and even running a beauty pageant of gay men.

The story, titled " the closet Kingdom" is startling in that it shows a stark picture of Saudi Arabia different from the one we are used to hear about in the media, which is normally a country that is very strict socially and religiously.
Remarkably enough, the writer interviewed many Saudi men who appeared to be shameless about their homosexuality and also Saudi women who engage in lesbian activities with other women though done in secrecy but did not seem to bother them however.
Yasser, a young gay Saudi was quoted saying that “ it is easier to be gay here than straight” Yasser was of course referring to the strict separation of sexes in the Kingdom therefore making easier for Saudi men to congregate and if they were homosexuals to engage in homosexual activities with other men.

Gay westerners, quoted in the story, described Saudi Arabia as “ Gay haven” a gay South African man remarked that even though South Africa allows gay marriage yet there are more gays in Saudi Arabia than South Africa”
That said however, the idea of being gay in an “ Arab” contest is different from the western idea of being gay. Gay in a western sense is a sort of identity, whereas in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries is more like a” behavior” not an identity.
Arab Gulfies are known in the Arab world, the story goes, for their inclination toward homosexual relations with men and boys.
Osama Fawzi, editor of Huston based Arab Times, the most popular Arab American paper in the US and who had lived in the United Arab Emirates in the seventies said when I spoke on the phone for this column that “homosexuality is not unusual in the gulf societies, in fact for any respectable wedding in the UAE the family must bring a band of gay boys to entertain the guests”
In the UAE they call a gay man “ Saroukh” said Mr. Fawzi. “Saroukh” means rocket.
Kuwait is another Gulf country where homosexuality and pedophiles are found almost everywhere. Last year a story made headlines when two gay Kuwaitis got married and threw a wedding party in Egypt.

Fuad Al-Hashem a well-known Kuwaiti columnist for the Al-Watan newspaper is perhaps the best-known openly homosexual Kuwaiti. Though Mr. Hashem was married and had a daughter but that did not seem to prevent him from having sexual encounters with other men according to a public statement he made a few years ago.
In Oman, another gulf country where having sex with boys and gay relationship is not unusual. Oman is well known for those types of activities according to Mr. Fawzi.
This is all sound very strange especially for the manly Arab culture that stresses manhood and valor but for the Saudi and Kuwaiti pedophiles, however, they would still consider themselves as machismo men and not gay men. This contradiction in the way being Gay in the Gulf Arab societies and Gay in the Western sense is diminishing because of Arab Gays exposure to Gay rights in western societies and for some there is a need to be recognized as gays and lesbians.

Yasmeen is another young Saudi female who has sexual relations with another women in her college, and who said this type of behavior is very common in all-girls Saudi schools and colleges.
But the writer of the story made critical errors in trying to show that the Islamic faith did not condemn this type of behavior in more strict and obvious terms.

This however does not mean that Islam endorses this type of behavior, which was not common in the desert society and the Arab tribes Islam was born into. Homosexuality therefore would fall under more general rules of vice and virtue laws such as adultery and extramarital relationships.
Lack of mentioning homosexuality and not having a pronounced and a clear punishment for it in the Islamic jurisprudence system as in the case of adultery between a heterosexual man and a woman, does not give license or imply that such relationships were condoned. Homosexuality was and still is uncommon in the Arab and Muslim world, despite its pocket existence as in the case of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries.

Abu Al-Nuwas (The Atlantic erroneously identified him as Aby Nuwaf) was a famous poet during the Abbasid era, in the eighth century and wrote long poems about Alcohol and the love of boys but that should not be taken, as a representative of something like a “gay culture” as the writer of The Atlantic seemed to insinuate. The writer Nadya Labi gives the meaning in her report that Gay relationships were common and prevalent in those days or that Islamic morality and value system was or still lenient when it comes to such behavior.

The report also missed the whole idea when the writer spoke of Saudi men looking at boys with lust and want as an evidence of gayness or homosexuality instead of treating the subject pedophiles preying upon their young victims.

The culture of the gun

The horrendous massacre at Virginia Tech came to remind us that we live in an unforgiving and violent world, even in our classrooms and living rooms.

Almost immediately, pro-gun commentators lashed out at the notion that the problem had anything to do with gun laws or gun control.
Arguments flared that had there been stricter gun control laws, Cho Seung Hui, who had a history of mental problems, would not have been able to obtain the guns legally, or would have been deterred or raised some red flags in his attempts to obtain them.
But look at the society we live in today. It is a very violent society; Americans are fed a daily fat diet of blood, gore and violence and we have become desensitized to it.
Cho Seung Hui may have had mental problems and issues of adjusting to his new society as a child since immigrating with his parents form South Korea.
That of course does not justify massacring 32 innocent young people, but it ought to make us stop and think of what the media and the society at large are telling young children.

Take for example pro wrestling, it is perhaps one of the stupidest “ sports” out there, where older men, puffed on steroid put out an act of gymnastic mayhem and violence and verbal threats to the delight of the deafening barbaric cheer of the crowd.

And what about video games; not only doest it teach children and adults alike the “ art” of shooting someone, and killing someone, but it also plants the seeds of violent behavior in one’s mind as a way to deal with his or her problems.
Violence, mafia, gangsterism, guns, shooing and killing is ever glamorized and glorified by the media and thus poison the well for everyone.
So, for a psychologically unstable Cho, traumatized by early racism,alienated and without friends and who grew up on a steady diet of violence everywhere, murdering 32 people was his way of venting and getting back at the society and a murderous punch.

The issue is not about more or stricter gun control or even abolishing gun ownership period with legitimate exceptions, which I am all for, but it is the broader issue of culture of violence that we seem to be oblivious about until we have massacres like Virginia Tech and Columbine High.
In these southern parts of the US, guns and gun ownership is a way of life, and part of everyday culture.
Many times I heard people or even friends saying something along the lines of “ if so and so come on my property, I’ll shoot’m” or something like “ if you pull a gun on me, you better shoot first, because you’ll be killed”. Threats of shooting and killing are almost everyday phrases and said with complete sense of normalcy. But perhaps there is a lot of machismo and jockeying around in these statements, nonetheless however, they illustrate the culture of the gun as a way to settle scores or disputes.
I was astonished; a few years back to find out that people, in the south can carry guns in their cars, and on their persons, giving certain requirements, are otherwise perfectly legal.
Many friends here are proud to show me their gun collections, which I normally refuse for I have a natural aversion to them and I am proud to say that I have never ever fired one.
One family I know is proud of its gun collection. The father owns over 12 guns, and some are used for deer hunting, while the wife owns a rifle, two pistols, and a small gun to carry around in the car. Their seventeen years old owns a rifle that he uses for target practice.
Pro gun arguments usually cite protection and deterrence as well as self-defense. But those arguments fail to understand that what their pro gun arguments are doing is spreading more guns and thus more potential for violence and murder.

Paul Hyde Greenville News columnist cited statistics, in his April 18 column, of murder incidents between the US and other developed European and Japanese societies where in 2001, “ firearms were used to murder six people in New Zealand, 56 in Japan, 96 in Great Britain, and 168 in Canada. In that same year, guns were used to murder 11, 348 people in the United States.

Don Imus and the hypocritical media

Don Imus racist remarks where he called Rutgers women basketball players "napp-headed hoes" has perhaps changed the way main stream American media deal with vulgarity and racism on the air waves. Sponsors of his show have pulled out their adds and his media outlets at NBC and CBS dropped him from thier lineup thus punishing him further for his racist and sexist remarks .

I agree with the argument that Imus remarks were sexist and racist and he ought to be disciplined for it. It is important to send a message to other public figures that racism is not tolerated.

Imus, however, did not invent those ugly remarks; he basically took them straight out of Rappers book.

We know that rappers and hiphoppers use even filthier language than Imus and it seems that a lot of people are cheering for this type of so called “ Art”

Why is it ok for Imus to be punished, and rightly, for his remarks, while Rappers go on to say things that are even worst than what Imus said? Where are the community and civic leaders when it comes to this kind of culture of violence.

Not only that, many of the lyrics of this form of music glorifies murder, encourages shooting police officers, shooting other rappers, encourage the use of drugs and open sexuality and with it comes sexually transmitted diseases.

How many times have you seen a “Rapper” present himself or herself as a positive role model for younger people or anyone? Never!

In fact, the only time I see them in the news is when they are being accused of rape, assault, drugs charges, murder, or being murdered. Yet we call them “ Artists” as if what they do is some kind of Art that lift the human spirit and represent the high or even decent form of culture and civilized expression. Do young women get motivated to go to college, or flock to the voting booth after they attend some concert of a hoodlum calling them “ hoes” among many other things.

And what about Arab Americans and Muslims being degraded, and humiliated almost everyday on the airwaves by some “ main stream” radio and TV hosts.

Almost no one flinch when some talk show host degrade Arab Americans and utter racist remarks belittling them at every corner.

Despite the protestations of many Arab and Muslim American organizations against hosts like Michael medvid and others who made a career out of it, it seems that anti-Arab racism is being tolerated by the news media and in some instances it has become a common currency.

Racism and bigotry should not be tolerated against any racial or ethnic group. The media should not punish certain people for things they say against one group, while they tolerate bigotry and racism against another.

This Medival republic

This medieval republic is suffering more now than it did under Saddam
AL ALARABI, For the Herald-Journal
Published April 8, 2007

It has been four years since the first shots were fired in the "shock and awe" war against Iraq. But the shocking truth is that Iraq is far worse off today than it was under Saddam Hussein in terms of economic development, stability, security and quality of life.
The recently published Brookings Institution Iraqi war index (www.brookings.edu/fp/
saban/iraq/index.pdf) catalogs the progress in Iraq in terms of security, U.S. troop involvement and quality of life. Category after category shows that Iraq is not only lagging behind its pre-war levels but that the slide is continuing downward.

Perhaps one would find so many moral arguments in favor of removing Saddam Hussein from power, and rightly so, however, according to a recently published U.N. report on the war in Iraq, more than 750,000 Iraqis were killed as a direct result of war, ethnic and religious violence. Moreover, there are more than 2 million Iraqi refugees in neighboring Syria

and Jordan in addition to 2 million more displaced inside Iraq, while 82 percent of Iraqis strongly oppose the presence of coalition troops, and 67 percent of Iraqis feel less secure because of U.S. occupation.

The United States has already spent more than $500 billion on this war, and this massive amount of money did not bring the level of security, quality of life, economic prosperity, education, health care and civil infrastructure to the pre-war level. What's even more shocking is that the "pre-war level" term refers to when Iraq, under Saddam Hussein, was languishing under brutal and suffocating sanctions.

Take, for example, some of the figures mentioned in the Brookings index: Of 34,000 doctors Iraq had before the war, 12,000 left the country, and 2,000 were murdered. And Baghdad residents get an average of only 5.7 hours of daily electricity compared to 16-24 hours of daily electricity before the war. Twenty-five percent of Iraqi children suffer from chronic malnutrition, and 40 percent of the professionals have left Iraq since the war began.

Sad to say, Iraq has become a medieval, intolerant republic of hatred and horror, ruled by anachronistic and cultist ayatollahs, and it has become a proving ground for terrorists of all kinds. Al-Qaida terrorists operate a daily horror show by killing innocent civilians, both Shias and Sunni. Shia death squads and terrorist groups such as the Mahdi Army and Badr Brigades rape Muslim women and destroy Muslim mosques.
Iraqi government troops and security forces also rape women and engage in kidnapping and murder of innocent civilians. The reason for the proliferation of terrorism in Iraq is that the United States supported a sectarian Shia rule instead of maintaining an Iraqi national identity that is not based on religious and ethnic background.

After the fog of war had subsided and Saddam's regime had collapsed, the Shia organizations descended upon Iraq (from Iran) like vandals looting the booty. And being Iranian financed, they sooner or later will turn their guns against the U.S. troops, if the United States engages Iran in some kind of military operation.

Reconciliation and rebuilding a democratic Iraq were nowhere on the minds of those organizations and their private terrorist militias when they took over the country. Judging by their performance in the past three years, revenge and blood was their mantra. The sending of more American soldiers into harm's way will support an Iraqi government that sees itself as strictly a cultist Shia government beholden only to Iran next door.

On Dec. 12, 1983, terrorists bombed the U.S. and French embassies, along with other facilities, in Kuwait City. Seventeen people were arrested, and as it turned out, they were from an Iraqi Shia terrorist group called Al-Dawa that bombed the U.S. embassy on behalf of Iran, which was at war with Iraq, a U.S. ally at the time. The Al-Dawa Shia party is the current Iraqi prime minister Nouri Maliki's ruling party in power in Iraq today.

Recent U.S. news reports uncovered that one of those terrorists convicted in that bombing is a current member of the Iraqi parliament.

It doesn't stop there. Other Shia groups, such as the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), headed by Abdel Aziz-Al Hakim, were financed by Iran and their militias trained and equipped by Iran.

Muqtada Sadr's Mahdi Army is another Shia terrorist group that has killed Arabs, Muslims and Christians and bombed mosques. These actions serve the narrow sectarian Shia interests and eventually the interests of their paymasters in Tehran.

Millions of other Iraqis can barely make ends meet, while their leaders loot the riches of their country. What needs to be done in Iraq today is for the U.S. government to stop the ongoing process of transforming Iraq into Iran's banana republic, or the "Iranification of Iraq," and thus force the Iraqi Shia leadership to dissolve its own militias and terrorists groups and rebuild Iraq for all Iraqis -- Arabs and Kurds, Muslims and Christians.

Ali Alarabi writes frequently on Middle East issues and can be reached at alialarabi@charter.net

Iran, the abused wife

With release of 15 British sailors is eminent followed a decision by the Iranian government to pardon them after they were captured possibly in its territorial waters nearly two weeks ago.

Iran has behaved irrationally, parading the British sailors on TV, showing them eating and in a good mood, showing them enjoying Iranian hospitality, sitting on rugs and also confessing and apologizing to the Iranian nation for their transgression.

Regardless of whether the British sailors have violated the Iranian waters or not, an incident happens all the time around the world, and it could be easily resolved.

But for Iran, the issue is more complicated. Iran is the subject of intense international sanctions over its nuclear program. It has some diplomats held captive in Iraq, It is often chided by the US and Britain over its policies and nuclear program. So this was a godsend opportunity for Iran to flex its muscles and show its western critics that it can cause them pain too.

Iran not only controls one of the world’s largest oil reserves, but it also controls the supplies routs through the strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf.

Iran also exercises a lot of power in Iraq through the Ayatollahs, the large Iranian expatriates living in Iraq, and Iraqi Shia parties who look for Tehran’s guidance and leadership. Therefore the Iranian leadership feels that it controls the levers of powers in their neighborhood, and they are right about that.

As a result of this crises Western and American consumers felt the pain of the Iranian-British crises first hand at the pump when the price of gas shot up dramatically.

But that does not explain the why Iran behaves in such immature and even adolescent way when it comes to international relations.

Modern Iran is an inheritor of a once great civilization and vast empire and feels that it ought to be treated and respected as if it is still that great empire. The problem for Iran however is that reality is harsh and painful and despite its glorious past it is now a weak, irrelevant third world country the west does not care about or recognize beyond its vast reserves of oil or whatever trouble it may makes in the neighborhood.

This lack of recognition enrages the Iranians and inflames their passions. At the beginning of the crises Iran was more concerned with a public apology from Britain and on a deeper level this would serve recognition from Britain for its past abuses of Iranians.
Although this sounds ridiculous and pathological, yet it is real in the minds of the Iranian leadership who fired up a lot of heated speeches and amusing rhetoric at the beginning of this crisis.

For Iran, the issue went from " Blatant aggression" to a pardon, and warm reception for the sailors, including a meeting with top Iranian leadership and pampering them with fine Iranian food which i am sure included squatting on fine Persian rugs. This is hardly the kind of treatment any country would accord to those who commit a “ blatant aggression” against it.
( British sailors meeting with Najad)

Iranians want the west and particularly the United States to have direct talks with them, that of course implies recognition which would put them an equal footing with the US as if it would make them feel as powerful as the super power itself if only they could sit face to face with it.

President Ahmadinajad unsolicited letter to President Bush last year was another example of Iran’s attempt to make or even force the US to hold talks with her. But president Bush did not give president Ahmadinajad the time of the day, and ignored his letter. That was painful and humiliating for the proud Iranian leadership.

Lets not forget that Iran has been abused by western powers through out its modern history and Britain in particular had basically robbed Iran of its precious oil at the beginning of the 20th century by giving the government of Iran a mere 15% of its own oil revenues.
Others wrongs by the West, especially Britain and America and their role in supporting the regime of the Shah and supporting Saddam Hussein in an 8 year devastating war are among a long laundry list of grievances that made the Iranians in general and the Islamic regime in particular hyper sensitive to any western incursion on their turf.

Iran should be treated with respect it deserves and to acquire whatever peaceful technology it needs, including nuclear, to develop its infrastructure within the framework of international law.

But Iran ought to change its behavior when it comes to international crises, which is more like the behavior of an abused wife, insecure and tormented from years of constant abuse and trauma from her former husband, but still unable to move forward after many years of divorce and with it the chance to start a new fresh chapter.

The march to Karbala

( a Shia rendering of Imam Ali)

It has become all too often to hear and read about the mass murder of innocent Iraqi Shias civilians marching into the city of Karbala to commemorate religious beliefs and occasions. Slaughter of civilians occurs almost daily when suicide bombers blow themselves up especially among the marchers who were commemorating the Arba’en, which literally means “Fortieth “ the 40th day to the date of the murder of Hussein, the grand son of Prophet Mohammad, and who Shia hold as the third Godly appointed Imam or ruler of “Islamic state”

In order to understand the broad political and social changes unfolding in Iraq now we should examine the religious rituals and its forceful disposition in today’s Iraq.

For one, the march into the city of Karbala by millions of Shia, Iranians, Arabs, and others is not to be viewed as simply as a religious march on a religious occasion, something some Christians do to commemorate events in Jesus Christ’s life. But rather as an expression of a distinctly evolved Shia ritual, though steeped in history and symbolism of martyrdom and injustice, however it was banned by the previous Iraqi regime because it asserted in the eyes of that regime, a religious and political identity deemed incompatible and even dangerous to the national secular-modernism identity of the state and its political existence.

The previous Iraqi state forged a common identity of all Iraqis regardless of the type or branch of religion one’s have, so long as loyalty to the state is strictly observed. Dissent and opposition were brutally and criminally suppressed however.

It was not unusual in such state, therefore, to see men like Tarik Aziz, a Christian Iraqi Arab reaching the upper echelons of power as deputy prime minister and the voice of Iraq to English speaking world, or former Information minister, Mohammad Said Sahaf, better known for his comical briefings during the 2003 war. He was an Iraqi Shia.

Many explanations and arguments were made to explain why Iraqis who share a common heritage, common religion as well as a common language and common blood, and tribal ties have descended into this vicious way of slaughtering one another.

We could discern from the violent crash of the former Iraqi state that it has ushered a breakdown of a larger national identity common to all Iraqis, dismembering it into pre-modern layers of identity of the tribe, family, ethnicity and religious sects.

Judging from the behavior of the Shia men of religion, the ayatollahs and other custodians of Shia relics, it was evident that they have not ascribed to the larger identity of being Arab, Muslim or Iraqi, in the national sense of the word. Otherwise it is absurd to think that one could switch loyalty in a day or two and behave in such fashion indicative of deep resentment and animosity to his “ former” identity” and his former country.

It is evident form ritual marches by millions of Shias to the city of Karbala, ceremonies of self-mutilation, ritualistic mourning of revered dead Muslim figures that they are signs of a “neo Shia identity” an emerging identity asserting itself not just by brute force but also with pump and extravagance.


This identity is teetering on the brink of “ Shia Nationalism” which will be based on a distinct Persian identity or Shia-Persian nationalism.

However, an Arab Shia-nationalism cannot hold in Arab society, partly because Shia Arabs are a minority and only about 10% of the Arab Muslims, and do not have a separate culture, language and other aspects of national characters outside the Arab fold.

But Iran does. So the specter of Arab Shia embracing Shia nationalism as a caveat to Persian nationalism would mean that a force from within the Arab fold is now challenging it and poses a grave danger to the existing social and political order for the benefit of a non-Arab country.

This might lead to repercussions against Shias and enforce their image as tools of power hungry Iran.

If we look at Iraq today we see that almost everything in it is going under some sort of shiafication process as well as holification, which is an aspect of Shiasm itself.

Al-Thawra city (Revolution City) became Sadr City, named after the late Shia Aytaollah Mohamad Baqer Sadr, whole neighborhoods were cleansed of their residents if they were Shias or Sunnis, depending on the majority, Statues of ancient Muslim Caliphs were removed because of ancient Shia animosity toward them. Large paintings and murals of Ayatollahs now adorn the walls and the streets, paintings of Imam Ali and his sons Hasan and Hussein are seen during Karbala marches. Such sights were virtually unknown in the past.

The cities of Najaf and Karbala became the holiest of all holies; to the Shias it is as if the hands of God himself built them. For the word “ holy” which has a Greek heritage and etymology means something divine or divine intervention and presence

The shrines of Imam Ali and his sons became almost an object of worship an anathema in mainstream Islam that stresses that there should be no intermediaries between man and God, and no man, or city for that matter are holy in the divine sense of the word Including prophet Mohammad himself and the city of Mecca.

Scoial changes; Muta'a marriages:

On the social level, Muta’a marriages have become widespread, despite that it is considered illegal and an affront to Islamic morality and values of mainstream Muslims. Muta’a means pleasure, which is a Shia practice, whereby a contractual agreement of temporary marriage for strictly sexual favors that ranges from one hour to days or months, depending on the contract drawn for the man and the woman by special religious clerics in special offices or houses.

Altghough it was considered a taboo in the past but this practice has been esepcially known in the cities of Najaf and Karbala were Iranian pilgrims come to pay a religious visit the shrines of Imams , and at the same time “marry” a woman for few hours or so for sex, then everyone is happy and each go their separate way .

For the rest of the Muslim community, this is considered an outright prostitution

For main stream Muslims, these social and political development has giving them a jolt for which unlike the Shias, other Muslims have no clerical establishment of Ayatollahs, or seminaries or a religious structure comparable to the Shias, in fact Shiasm has more in common with Christianity, structurally speaking, than Islam.

For most of the Arab and Muslim world the Shias practices are being perceived as an alien and strange. Practices like the Mut’a marriages, “ Pilgrimage” to places other than or in addition to Mecca, the designation of Najaf and Karbla as “ Holy cities” all of this gives the impression of separateness from the larger Muslim community. And Shias have indeed separated themselves from the larger community of Muslims throughout the centuries in rituals and religious practices.

Shiaism as a political Party

Shiaism, it started off as a political opposition group,a political party,that favored a claimant to power ( Ali )against another ( Abu Bakr who was elected by the Muslim community) but in the course of centuries Shiasm developed an intellectual argument and a theology, and in some cases it branched off into a whole new religion outside the main body of Islam.

Its central difference between the main body of Islam and Shiasm is whether Imam Ali should be the ruler of the Muslim community after the death of the prophet in the 7th century or not.

Moreover, “Sunnis” do not harbor any animosity to the Prophet’s clan and family, who the Shias believe f as “Holy”, nor do they have any animosity toward the Shia Imams. It is all too common for “ Sunnis” to name their children as “ Ali, Hasan, Hussein, Hadi, Mahdi, Jafar, all of which are holy, perfect, and sinless super human beings in the Shia theology. Conversely, however, no Shia family will ever name their children such names like Omar, Othman, Bakr; names of Muslim Caliphs and whom Shias are taught at a young age to hurl insults damnation and ritualistic curses at them until the present day. It’s worth noting that damnations and curses against historic Muslim figures are recited at every Shia prayers.


Picture of Imam Ali on T-shirt)

This type of historic vendetta rendered quaint in other religions and societies but still persists among the Shias indicates that the Shias are psychologically stuck in a tragic moment of history and unable to move forward past that moment..

Furthermore, it was non Shia Muslims who showed the most support for an exclusive Shia organization such as Hezbollah, during its war with Israel last summer. Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, Tunis Morocco, Algeria, are countries were Shiasm is virtually non-existent, yet it was where Hezbollah enjoyed the most support and sympathy in its war against Israel.
This shows that mainstream Muslims, unlike Shias, view themselves simply as Muslims, Not Sunnis.

Who are the Sunnis:
Sunnis cannot fairly be described as a “ Sunnis“. To label it as such would be an oversimplification because there is no such thing as a “ Sunni Identity” that corresponds with the Shia identity, nor there is a Sunni rituals or Sunni hierarchy such as Ayatollahs that will lead a Sunni establishment of sort or even Sunni states, for all of the Arab states, are secular in nature and in law, and nowhere mentioned in their modern constitutions the insistence on being a Sunni State with a Sunni head of State in contrast with Iranian’s constitution for example, the leading Shia state, that insists on the Shi’ism being the creed of the state and that of its head.

Hip-Hop in Jordan

The pan Arab daily Al-Hayat reported back in late January “ Hip Hop to encourage Jordanian-European exchange”

The small item news said that the European Union is financing a dance workshop of 15 young men and women to better the skills of hip hop dancing in Jordan.

Those who are in charge of this workshop said that the hip-hop workshop is not about just dancing, but it’s more about encouraging cultural dialogue between civilizations.

You might want to call me an old school, but I really don’t understand how hip-hop dancing would encourage the so-called “ dialogue of civilizations”

Hip-Hop, though an almost mainstream art form in America and Europe, however it is still unaccepted by the majority of the societies in the western world for the culture of drugs, sex, and violence it brings. So why should it be accepted in such traditional societies such the one in Jordan, where society ills such drugs, and violence are at the very minimum. And for sure Jordan does not need such problems.

And if you think hip-hop is getting more popular, you are wrong. Recent surveys published by the American press shows that hip-hop is losing popularity among African American community; the community were hip-hop music is more popular.

Rap music glorifies violence,degrades women,incites murder,spreads drugs, and public sexuality, and it has made a significant impact at increasing the levels of crime, and violence and drug culture among the African American community, such problems are part of the reasons for the economical, educational and health disparities between African Americans and other segments of American societies.

Mohammad Badr, one of the participants in the workshop said “ it is a rare opportunity in Jordan, I have been hip-hop dancing with a group of 11 dancers for over four years, but we lack enough support to develop our talents”

I am not sure what Mohammad meant of “ enough support” to develop his talents, and where this support should come from. But thanks to the EU, hiphoppers and rappers got themselves some training so they can go out there and conquer the world! Give me a break!

Of all the problems the Arab world has, from high illiteracy rates, 40 and 60 percent in some areas, to reading habits to economic developments, the EU chose something Americans are dumping in their trashcan then repackaged it Jordan as “ dialogue of civilizations” Are you kidding me!

Maybe someone ought to question the wisdom of choosing Jordan as garbage dump for someone else’s trash.

Iraq war report card

It has been four years since the first shots were fired in the “shock and awe” war against Iraq.
Though the stated goals of this war has shifted so many times over the years from Weapons of mass destruction, the war on terror, to remove Saddam Hussein, to bringing democracy and freedom.

Here is the report card for this war, The data gleaned here shows that fours years worth of “ democracy”, Freedom” and 500 billion of US dollars injected into Iraq, and over 82 billion dollars of Iraqi government revenues from oil sales, did not amount to the levels of Security, quality of life, economic prosperity, education, health care, and civil infrastructure of pre-wars level.

What’s more shocking is that the “pre-war level” term, was when Iraq under Saddam Hussein was languishing under brutal and suffocating sanctions, yet still, four years of shock
and owe, and Shia/Militias-democratic rule, did not reach the “ pre-war levels”
Strange as it seems to be, but the numbers speak for themselves.

All the data included here are from the Brooking Institution Iraq war index, www.brookings.edu/fp/saban/iraq/index.pdf

www.Iraqbodycount.org US mainstream media and US and Iraq government agencies.

US SPENDING IN IRAQ

The U.S spent $505 billion on the war effort so far
The Bush administration is requesting another $100 billion for 2007 and $140 billion for 2008, which would bring the cumulative total to over $700 billion.
Lost & Unaccounted for in Iraq - $9 billion of US taxpayers' money and $549.7 million in spare parts shipped in 2004 to US contractors
Mismanaged & Wasted in Iraq - $10 billion, per Feb 2007 Congressional hearings
Halliburton Overcharges Classified by the Pentagon as Unreasonable and Unsupported - $1.4 billion


COALITION TROOPS IN IRAQ AND US


Troops in Iraq - Total 155,035, including 141,000 from the US, 7,100 from the UK, and 6,935 from all other nations (other than Iraq).
US Troop Causalities - 3,205 US troops
Non-US Troop Casualties - Total 258, with 134 from the UK
US Troops Wounded - 24,042, 20% of which are serious brain or spinal injuries (total excludes psychological injuries)
US Troops with Serious Mental Health Problems 30% of US troops develop serious mental health problems within 3 to 4 months of returning home
US Military Helicopters Downed in Iraq - 60 total, at least 29 by enemy fire


Journalists killed:
Iraqis Europeans Americans Arabs Others Total
74 11 2 3 5 95


Iraqi Military and Police Casualties - 6,271
Iraqi Civilians Killed, Estimated - A UN issued report dated Sept 20, 2006 stating that Iraqi civilian causalities have been significantly under-reported. Casualties are reported at 50,000 to over 100,000, but may be much higher. Some informed estimates place Iraqi civilian causalities at over 600,000. ( Iraqibodycount.org , IBC )
Iraqi Insurgents Killed, Roughly Estimated - 55,000

Daily insurgents attacks:
Feb 2004 July 2005 Nov 2006 Dec 2006
14 70 180 185



Iraqis kidnapped
January 2004 December 2004 December2005 March2006
2 per day in Baghdad 10 per day in Baghdad Up to 30 per day in Baghdad 30-40 per day in Baghdad

Iraqi prison population:
Peak prison population 2003 10,000
March 2007, 17,00 in US custody
In Iraqi custody, until September 2006 13,000


Estimated foreign fighters in the Insurgency:
January 2004 November 2006
500 800-2000


Nationality of Foreign Fighters:

Algeria SaudiArabia Sudan Syria Yemen Egypt Other countries
600 350 450 550 500 400 150

20% 12% 1 5% 18% 17% 13% 5%




NOTE ON NATIONALITIES OF FOREIGN MILITANTS GRAPH: Two other sources have cited the nationalities of non-Iraqi
Jihadists (one specifying those captured, the other those killed) in Iraq, and the three reports suggest somewhat different trends. Reuven Paz
cites Saudi Arabia as contributing the highest number of jihadists killed (94) from November to March, 2005, followed by Syria (16) and
Kuwait (11). Reuven Paz,“Arab Volunteers Killed in Iraq: An Analysis,” Global Center for International Affairs Center (GLORIA),
Occasional Papers, Volume 3 (2005), Number 1, March 2005.


Internally Displaced persons in Iraq
Since April 2003

2003 100,000
2004 200,000
2005 250,000
2006 685,000
2007 750,000



Iraqi refugees living abroad

Iraqi refugees living abroad 1.8 million
Iraqi refugees in Syria 600,00- 1 million
Iraqi refugees in Jordan 700,000- 750,000
Iraqi refugees in Egypt, Lebanon, Iran 175,000- 200,000
Refugees seeking asylum in Europe, first half of 2006 8,100

Refugees and asylum seekers:
2003-2004 366,000
2005 523,000
Total 889,000


*QUALITY OF LIFE INDICATORS
Iraqi Unemployment Rate - 27 to 60%, where curfew not in effect
Consumer Price Inflation in 2006 - 50%
Iraqi Children Suffering from Chronic Malnutrition - 25% in May 2006
Percent of professionals who have left Iraq since 2003 - 40%
Average Daily Hours Iraqi Homes Have Electricity 9.6
Average Daily Hours Baghdad Homes Have Electricity 5.7 h
Pre-War Daily Hours Baghdad homes Have Electricity 16 to 24 h
Number of Iraqi Homes Connected to Sewer Systems 37%
Percentage of Iraqi Homes with Access to Piped Water 78%
Water Treatment Plants Rehabilitated 22%
RESULTS OF POLL Taken in Iraq in August 2005 by the British Ministry of Defense (Source: Brookings Institute)
Iraqis "strongly opposed to presence of coalition troops 82%
Iraqis who believe Coalition forces are responsible for any improvement in security - less than 1%
Iraqis who feel less secure because of the occupation - 67%

Index of political freedom in Iraq:
Israel 8.20
Lebanon 6.55
Morocco 5.20
Palestine 5.05
Iraq 5.05
Kuwait 4.90
Tunisia 4.60
Jordan 4.45
Qatar 4.45
Egypt 4.30
Sudan 4.30
Yemen 4.30
Algeria 4.15
Oman 4.00
Bahrain 3.85
Iran 3.85
UAE 3.70
Saudi Arabia 2.80
Syria 2.80
Libya 2.05

Note on Index:
Each country is scored on a 10-pint scale, with 1 being the lowest score, and 10 the highest.

Index of Press freedom
149 Gambia 54.0
150 Yemen 54.0
151 Belarus 57.0
152 Libya 62.5
153 Syria 63.0
154 Iraq 66.8
155 Vietnam 67.3
156 Laos 67.5
157 Pakistan 70.30
158 Uzbekistan 71.0
159 Nepal 73.5
160 Ethiopia 75.0
161 Saudi Arabia 76.0
162 Iran 90.9
163 China 94.0
164 Burma 94.8
165 Cuba 95.0
166 Eritrea 97.5
167 Turkmenistan 98.5
168 North Korea 109.0


Note on Index of Press Freedom: the lower the score attained, the higher the degree of press freedom in the respective country.

Political Parties in Iraq:
Registered for December 205 election Over 300



Doctors in Iraq
Iraqi Doctors registered before 2003 invasion 34,000
Iraqi doctors who have left Iraq since the 2003 invasion 12,000 (estimate)
Iraqi doctors murdered since 2003 invasion 2,000
Iraqi doctors kidnapped 250
Average salary of an Iraqi doctor 7.5 million Iraqi dinar per year or $ 5,100 per year
Annual graduates form Iraqi medical school 2,250
Percentage of above that will work outside of Iraq 20%

Note: numbers are estimates.

The new identities of Iraq

“It may turn out that the civil war that destroyed Lebanon was a pilot project for the whole region, and that with very few exceptions states will disintegrate into chaos of squabbling, feuding, fighting sects, tribes and regions. “ Bernard Lewis, Mideast states, pawns no longer in Imperial games. Essay. 1991

What’s happening in The Middle East today, In Darfour, Lebanon and particularly in Iraq is exactly what Middle East scholar Bernard Lewis wrote about 16 years ago in the aftermath of the first Gulf war, and the invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

Lewis words are eerie prophetic giving the amount of slaughter, hatred, tribal and sectarian violence fueling the passions in Iraq. Iraq has, more or less, been redrawn and subdivided based on religious sects and ethnicities. The Shias a religious sect stood to reap the fruits of the American invasion and occupation their country leaving others to fight it out and fight them as well. The Kurds have for all intents and purposes carved out a country of their own in the north of what soon to be called “ the former Iraq” while the Sunnis are left to set themselves up some kind of a country in western Iraq.

Ever since the removal of Saddam Hussein regime in 2003, Iraq and the Iraqis are going through profound changes in their political, economic, religious and social lives.

For certain segments of the Iraqi society, this change is welcomed for others it brought doom, but the one thing for sure is that all components of the Iraqi society share, that is a country reduced from an advanced industrious one into a heap of wreckage, a shell of its former self.


In 1991, the first Bush administration opted to leave Iraq without a fight, after liberating Kuwait and therefore leaving it intact. The second Bush administration, however, came into this war with a plan.

But why do Iraqis who share a common heritage, common ethnic stock for the most part, and have lived together in some political configuration or another for thousands of years.
Yet they have transformed their own country into an inferno of killing each other off based on one’s membership of a certain religious sect or ethnicity.

The current occurring of slaughter and hatred has to do with the breakdown of the Iraqi national identity that was the glue that held all Iraqis together regardless of their sects or ethnic groups. Iraqis see each other today differently. Your next-door neighbor has all of the sudden become the enemy, simply because he is not a member of your sect or tribe or ethnic group.

Through Iranian influence and the work of Iranian Ayatollah, Ali Sistani, Iraqi Shias are increasingly embracing their new identity of being just “ Shia” while Iran in the mean time has emerged as the bigger winner since dismantling the previous Iraqi order. The Shias of Iraq look for Iran for support, guidance, and of course weapons and money. Iran for its part had created, trained and equipped thousands of Iraqi Shia precisely for the day they take over their former enemy’s country in some kind of political arrangement that will swallow the oil-rich southern chunk of it under the guise of Shia confederation.

Abdel-Aziz Al Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic revolution in Iraq, SCIRI, an Iranian-sponsored outfit, has called for the establishing of an all- Shia enclave in the south. This, if it happened will be the second practical step to divide Iraq. Kurdistan being the first.
( Hakim)

To facilitate this, Iranians are living in Iraq by the hundred of thousands, particularly in the south and in the city of Najaf area, an unthinkable feat just few years past. Other Arab states stand powerless to influence these events in Iraq, even America is powerless in this regard and there is nothing it can do to change it.

Vali Nasr, Iranian author of the “ Shia Revival” a Mediocre book of polemics touting Shia-Persian nationalism as a new basis of identity for Arab and Pakistani Shias under the leadership of Iran, describes the smashing of the former Iraqi state and establishing a new “ Shia” order by using the term “opening” of Iraq, an old Islamic term used when conquering new territories. According to this view which is being fermented in the halls of power in Tehran and the religious seminaries in Qom and Najaf, other Arab countries are at risk of being “ opened” or conquered particularly those countries with restive Shia populations, such as Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, whom Nasr described its ruling family as a “ Sunni settlers” alluding to Iran’s territorial claims and ambitions for the Island country.

For " Sunnis" in Iraq, they would still identify themselves in Iraqi national terms and its overlapping larger sense of identity of being "Arabs" and "Muslims", and with the rest of Arabs in other Arab countries, without the narrow secterian bagage.

Israel stands to be the other beneficiary of the new Shia order in Iraq and the emerging Shia nationalism.

For Israel, Iraq has been removed as a powerful Arab country, now reduced to rubbles, thanks in part to the Iraqi Shias who rode America’s military might and enabled Israel in addition to Iran, to eliminate the possibilities of Iraq becoming a powerful industrial State.

Zbigniew Brzeninsky, President Carter former national security advisor, testified on February 1,at a hearing of the Senate Foreign relations committee said that in responding to Senator Joseph Biden that he can imagine several hidden motives for the war in Iraq:

“ One would be to gain American domination over the region’s oil, to put it very simplistically. Another could be to help maximize Israel security by removing a powerful Arab state. Another one could have been simply to get rid of an obnoxious regime with which the United States had accounts to settle going to back to 91 including the alleged assassination attempt against president Bush senior, there could be a variety of motives. But the official motives were weapons of mass destruction.”

Bob Inglis breaks with neo-cons

Published: Sunday, February 25, 2007 - 2:00 am , Greenville News, South Carolina

Inglis made a courageous break with the 'neo-cons'

Iraq is worse off today, with U.S. helping shape the country into Iran's banana republic.

By Ali Alarabi

Fourth District Congressman Bob Inglis' decision to vote in favor of a nonbinding resolution against sending more U.S. soldiers to Iraq, and the controversy that erupted afterward here in Greenville, highlights the growing and healthy debate over the war in Iraq.

When I met Congressman Inglis late last year to discuss with him his opinion on issues of the Middle East, he showed genuine desire for a stable, safe and democratic Iraq and real concern for the safety and well being of American troops fighting there especially after he himself went to visit with the U.S. troops in Iraq last year.

He was an enthusiastic supporter of democracy and freedom in Iraq, and I am sure he still is. Congressman Inglis, however, deserves our full support for his courageous decision to break with the neo-cons over this war that has, as he put it," led us to slaughter." There is no need for more young American soldiers to die in this un-winnable war.

Untold billions of U.S. dollars went towards shoddy reconstruction projects. More billions of Iraqi oil money were looted by the new Iraqi Shia leaders who turned out to be even worse than Saddam ever was. Before this war, Iraq had no terrorist presence on its soil and was a secular modern state despite Saddam's brutality and criminality.

Today, sad to say, Iraq has become a medieval, intolerant republic of hatred and horror ruled by anachronistic ayatollahs, and it has become a proving ground for terrorists of all kinds. Al-Qaida terrorists operate a daily horror show by killing innocent civilians, both Shias and Sunni. Shia death squads and terrorist groups such as the Mahdi Army and Badr Brigades rape Muslim women and destroy Muslim mosques.

Iraqi government troops and security forces also rape women, and engage in kidnapping, murder and slaughtering of innocent civilians. The reason for the proliferation of terrorism in Iraq is that the United States supported a sectarian Shia rule in Iraq instead of maintaining an Iraqi national identity that is not based on religious and ethnic background. After the fog of war had subsided and Saddam's regime had collapsed, the Shia organizations descended upon Iraq (from Iran) like vandals looting the booty.

Nowhere on their mind was rebuilding a democratic Iraq and reconciliation. Judging by their performance in the past three years, revenge and blood was their mantra. The major problem with sending American soldiers into harm's way is that they are going to support an Iraqi government that sees itself as strictly Shia government beholden only to Iran next door.
The sectarian Shia rule in Iraq has more or less become the United State's Achilles' heel.


On Dec. 12, 1983, terrorists bombed the U.S. and French embassies, along with other facilities in Kuwait City. Seventeen people were arrested and as it turned out that they were from an Iraqi Shia terrorist group called Al-Dawa that bombed the U.S. embassy on behalf of Iran. Al-Dawa Shia party is the current Iraqi Prime minister Nouri Maliki's ruling party in power in Iraq today.

Recent U.S. news reports uncovered that one of those terrorists convicted in that bombing is a current member of the Iraqi parliament. This does not even stop there, other Shia groups such as the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), headed by Abdel Aziz- Al Hakim, is another organization in power in Iraq, that was founded and financed, and its militias trained and equipped, by Iran.

Muqtada Sadr's Mahdi Army is another Shia terrorist group that has killed Arabs, Muslims and Christians, and bombed mosques. These actions serve the narrow sectarian Shia interests and eventually the interests of their pay masters in Tehran.


Perhaps one would find so many moral arguments in favor of removing Saddam Hussein from power, and rightly so. However, according to recent published U.N. report on the war in Iraq, it said that over 750,000 Iraqis were killed as a direct result of war, ethnic and religious violence. Moreover, there are over 2 million Iraqi refugees in neighboring Syria and Jordan.

Millions of other Iraqis can barely make ends meet, while their leaders loot the riches of their country. The situation today is far worst than it was under Saddam's regime. What needs to be done in Iraq today is for the U.S. government to stop the ongoing process of transforming Iraq into Iran's banana republic, or the "Iranification of Iraq," and thus force the Iraqi Shia leadership to dissolve their own militias and terrorists groups and rebuild Iraq for all Iraqis -- Arabs and Kurds, Muslims and Christians.